A Wild Ride

Photographs By Rick Perez

After their gig the Smell, San Diego punk band Cardboard Boxer hung out with Reckless Magazine in the graffitti filled bathrooms of the legendary Los Angeles venue. The band opened up about fighting mental demons, keeping the music scene safe for all, and the story behind their latest EP, “Resistance”.

Los Angeles, USA

Who is Cardboard Boxer and what is your music about?

Shea Villetet: Cardboard Boxer is an indie punk band from San Diego that has been together since 2017. We’ve all been going to concerts since we could barely walk and have a strong passion for music. Our sound and taste is ever changing and evolving. The songs we write are about experiences we’ve had together, friends come and gone, as well as where we want to progress in the future. We tour in an old decommissioned ambulance that runs just well enough to get to the next city. Our members include Thomas Achenbach on guitar, Evan De Silva on drums, our newest member Cameron Jackson on bass, and myself on guitar/vocals.

How has the band grown and changed since you first formed?

Evan De Silva: The band has developed so much over the years both sonically and ideologically. On our first ep, there is a blissful ignorance about life as a whole and a general lack of regard for sound. We were content with just being a party band and felt like that was good enough. As we moved on to the writing of the next record, we had begun to experience the power of the local music scene and the parallel of life that followed with getting older. Now the music was more about trying to find joys in the mundanity of life and roll with the punches without getting knocked down. We have gone through a few bass players (Trevor Lincoln and Joey Purdie) and now we have a solidified lineup that has stuck. Overall, I believe the band has grown immensely not only as musicians but most importantly as people.

What do you love most about being in the San Diego rock scene? What do you think needs to change?

Shea Villetet: What we love most about being a part of the San Diego rock scene is the inclusivity of the culture that surrounds us. Everyone is very genuine and appears to not only be in it for the music, but also the long lasting relationships that are cultivated in the process. We have made many friends from concerts years back that we still see to this day. The scene should be a safe place where people can be who they want to be and act like themselves. Unfortunately, I say “should” because not everyone fosters this same principle. Some bad bands and concert goers take advantage of others and create an unsafe environment which needs to stop. We can create safer spaces by keeping watch at shows for any sort of malicious behavior and also making sure perpetrators are held accountable for their actions.

How did the pandemic affect the band? What did you learn about yourselves?

Tommy Achenbach : The pandemic caused us to cancel our US tour. It was a real bummer for all of us, but we made the best out of it by writing and recording both the resistance EP and our first full length album. As for what we learned about ourselves, I'd say it's the importance of staying motivated and active in the face of adversity. Luckily we live together so we were able to continue to practice as normal. But it was a defeating feeling writing, practicing, and trying to improve songs in a world without live music.

You recently released your EP, "Resistance". What is the EP about? What story are you trying to tell?

Shea Villetet : Our new EP “Resistance” is about standing up for what is right and fighting the mental demons that try to make us complacent. The idea is that it’s very easy to put on the blinders to the world around you and essentially only see what you want to. There cannot be happiness in life without sadness nor hills without valleys, so the idea is to keep looking forward when life seems bleak because eventually things will get better. Also, there definitely was a politically charged element to the song writing process as well where at a point we had begun to lose faith for humanity which is portrayed in the ending track on the EP.

How does "Resistance" show your evolution as musicians? How is it different from your previous albums, "Thai Motel" and "Something as It is"?

Tommy Achenbach: We wrote “Thai Motel” while we were still in high school and recorded it shortly after. It was all recorded live, and all in one day. It was a very raw EP and we took what we learned from that into “Something as It is”. We spent a lot more time on that record writing everything out to click tracks and making sure each note was where it needed to be.

Now with “Resistance”. we've gone back to a more live clickless format to give it a kind of wild ride feel, while still taking extra time to make sure all the notes are right and to really work on production in a way we haven't before. We still have much love for our roots, but we all agree that the “Resistance” EP is our best work and to date the best representation of us as a band.

What's next for Cardboard Boxer?

Shea Villetet: We are currently in the process of recording our first full length album. This has been, in our minds, long overdue and we are extremely happy with how the tunes are turning out. We also have some future tours in the works and plan on announcing a west coast run soon. Our goal is to just keep building our fanbase and try to play as many shows as possible.